Johannes Gebauer wrote:For the same reason there is no year 0. 0 is the point in between the year -1 and the year +1. Midnight of the 31st December in the year -1 _is_ zero, but one minute later is in fact the 1st January of the year 1.
You give medieval astronomers too much credit. There's no year zero because nobody made one (the AD system was created retrospectively, don't forget.) If a year zero did exist, you'd be arguing that it would be ludicrous to leap from -1 to +1.
OK, let's simplify this. In Biblical times, people kept track of the passage of years with King Lists (and way before Biblical times in Egypt, of course). The 8th year of the reign of Tiberius, the 3rd year of the reign of Herod the Great, and so on.
The Christian calendar is no more and no less than a King List ... with ONLY ONE KING! This is Anno Domine (Year of our Lord) 2004. AD stands for the Latin (spelling not guaranteed!). It's the BC (before Christ) convention of numbering backwards that was an arbitrary invention, and I don't know when it was invented. The early church couldn't have cared less about "pagan" history or rulers. That's why "BC" is an abreviation only in English--which basically didn't exist until ... when? ... the 11th century or so? My understanding is that other languages have other indication for B.C.E. (before the Common Era) dates, even though the numbering is the same.
Besides, Roman numberals have no sign for zero!
John
-- John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
